Budget airline Avelo is closing two of its three operating bases in North Carolina, decreasing service for customers in the state.
The airline is streamlining its fleet, shuttering three bases nationwide and consolidating its network around four remaining bases, the company announced last Tuesday.
Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU), the second busiest in the state, and Wilmington International Airport (ILM) will no longer serve as operating bases for Avelo.
“Those two airports are larger airports with lots of capacity on competing routes,” Avelo Airlines communications manager Courtney Goff told NC Newsline.
The closures come as Avelo also announced it’s ending its controversial deportation flights January 27 and closing its base at Mesa International Airport in Arizona.
The airline began a charter program for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration Customs and Enforcement agency in May 2025, NC Newsline previously reported.
“The program provided short-term benefits, but ultimately did not deliver enough consistent and predictable revenue to overcome its operational complexity and costs,” Goff said.
But Goff denied that the closures of other bases were connected to controversy over the airline’s work with ICE, saying the airline did not see a decline in customers. Avelo flew a record 2.6 million customers on scheduled commercial service in 2025, 11% higher than in 2024.
Avelo is known for serving smaller, regional airports that often don’t have direct flights from other carriers. It functions on a point-to-point network, as opposed to the hub-and-spoke model, which connects passengers through larger airports — more common for full-service, legacy airlines.
The airline will continue service from RDU to New Haven, Conn. (HVN) and Rochester, N.Y. (ROC), according to the Jan. 6 announcement, which are both also served by low-cost competitor Breeze Airways. Avelo nixed the routes connecting RDU to Grand Rapids, Mich. (GRR) and Wilmington, Del. (ILG); it was the only carrier offering these flights.
A spokesperson for RDU said the airport continues to house a wide range of airlines and destinations from which travelers may choose.
At ILM, Avelo still has flights to New Haven; Nashville, Tenn. (BNA); Tampa, Fla. (TPA); and Baltimore, Md. (BWI).
“These routes have the most demand and limited capacity and they currently work well within our network,” Goff said. “There are also opportunities to add seasonal service to ILM and RDU as scheduling and demand permits.”
Concord-Padgett Regional Airport (USA) near Charlotte continues as a base, seeing an increase in service on some of its routes.
The Charlotte-area base employs more than 75 crewmembers for Avelo, according to Goff. The airline’s operations at the airport began in May 2024, and Avelo has served more than 230,000 customers on over 2,000 flights at Concord-Padgett Regional Airport since then.
Changes have begun rolling out and will be completed in the spring, Goff said.
Brett Snyder, president of airline industry blog Cranky Flier, said this change marks a division in North Carolina.
“Western North Carolina benefits since Concord is one of the remaining bases, and it will likely see increased attention,” he told NC Newsline. “In the east, however, with both RDU and Wilmington losing bases, it’s going to be a deep reduction in flying for the airline.”
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